CakeResume, used by tech companies like Google, L’Oréal and TSMC to find new talent, announced today it has raised $5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by returning investor Mynavi, one of Japan’s largest human resources companies, and will be used to expand in countries like Indonesia, Vietnam and India. Based in Taipei, Taiwan, CakeResume currently has 5 million users around the world, and more than 7,000 clients who use it to source job candidates.
Since TechCrunch last covered CakeResume in August 2020, it has grown from 20 employees to more than 100. The platform has seen a lot of traction in Indonesia, where it now has 1.8 million users, and also has significant user bases in Taiwan and India. It focuses on tech jobs, but covers other industries like fast-moving consumer goods and design.
Founder Trantor Liu told TechCrunch that one of the ways CakeResume differentiates from other job sites like LinkedIn is the ability to build multimedia résumés, so people like software engineers and designers can show off their work. Job seekers are able to customize images, videos and fonts and embed iframes. Some examples of how users take advantage of the multimedia résumé builder are software engineers embedding projects from GitHub and designers embedding data visualizations.
Part of the funding will be used to add networking tools, including a new feature on CakeResume’s mobile app called “Talent Network” that lets users swipe on the profiles of people they want to meet. This is intended to make it easier for people to meet headhunters, job seekers and mentors.
CakeResume has also been working on a AI talent recommendation engine for the past couple of years. It is meant to reduce the amount of time companies and recruiters spend sourcing candidates by 40% to 50%. For example, a recruiter can tell the engine they want to hire a senior Java engineer in Indonesia for a salary of $60,000 to $70,000, and it will return potential candidates.
The funding will also be used to support CakeResume’s growth in Southeast Asia, with a focus on onboarding more companies from Indonesia.